Social engineering in the third world

Success in economic development is normally measured in terms of growth rates in gross national product, with little attention given to the accompanying increase in employment. However, growth can be more or less labor absorbing depending upon the technology introduced during industrialization. In this article the author states the case for intermediate technology along with examples of its application.     

Variations in entrepreneurship

This article is written in the style of a “bildungsroman,” a fictional autobiographical “coming of age story” about the author’s experiences of his beginning to recognize the: great diversity of entrepreneurs, many types of startup firms, multiple ways entrepreneurs go about starting firms, and innumerable situations in which entrepreneurial activity takes place. In this remembrance of things past, the author realizes: the phenomenological underpinnings of his understanding of entrepreneurship, his belief in the primacy of facts as the arbiter of theory, that his theory predisposed him to look only for certain kinds of facts and ignore others which then makes theory paradoxically the arbiter of the facts found, and, finally, that knowledge is hard won and wisdom elusive. “Nothing is more uncertain, more contradictory, more unsatisfactory than the evidence of facts”—William Godwin     

Die politische Ökonomie wachsender Ungleichverteilung der Einkommen

In dealing with growing income inequality, economists and social scientists have ignored the interdependencies between economic performance, voter turnout and people’s psychological damages and social deprivations. This article emphasises the role of demography for the bargaining power of trade unions and employer associations. It demonstrates the concomitance of full employment and shrinking income inequality and, correspondingly high unemployment and growing income inequality. Due to the decrease in the size of the labour force in Germany since 2005, the gap between higher and lower incomes will soon become smaller, and many economic and social problems can be solved.     

Utilizing the firm's resources: How TMT heterogeneity and resulting faultlines affect TMT tasks

While theory and evidence show that firms' competitive actions mediate the resource‐performance relationship, details of top managements' roles in shaping resource utilization choices have been underemphasized. We address this oversight by integrating top management team heterogeneity and any resulting faultline strength with the resource‐action‐performance model to investigate how TMT composition differentially affects the model's two linkages. Specifically, we argue that TMT heterogeneity positively affects the resource‐action linkage, yet negatively affects the action‐performance linkage. Moreover, when heterogeneity begets strong faultlines, all such positive effect is lost. Supportive evidence from the in‐vitro medical diagnostic substance manufacturing industry allows us to discuss how our findings contribute to upper echelons theory, as well as the emerging stream on resource utilization. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Agriculture and climate change in global scenarios: why don't the models agree

Agriculture is unique among economic sectors in the nature of impacts from climate change. The production activity that transforms inputs into agricultural outputs involves direct use of weather inputs (temperature, solar radiation available to the plant, and precipitation). Previous studies of the impacts of climate change on agriculture have reported substantial differences in outcomes such as prices, production, and trade arising from differences in model inputs and model specification. This article presents climate change results and underlying determinants from a model comparison exercise with 10 of the leading global economic models that include significant representation of agriculture. By harmonizing key drivers that include climate change effects, differences in model outcomes were reduced. The particular choice of climate change drivers for this comparison activity results in large and negative productivity effects. All models respond with higher prices. Producer behavior differs by model with some emphasizing area response and others yield response. Demand response is least important. The differences reflect both differences in model specification and perspectives on the future. The results from this study highlight the need to more fully compare the deep model parameters, to generate a call for a combination of econometric and validation studies to narrow the degree of uncertainty and variability in these parameters and to move to Monte Carlo type simulations to better map the contours of economic uncertainty.     

城市物流平台:IT解决方案和技术平台

城市物流主要由两部分组成:城市物流运营系统和城市物流平台。城市物流平台提供了整体的IT解决方案和技术设备以支持城市物流运营。本文阐述了IT解决方案如何支持城市物流运营的各个方面,从而使得城市物流各技术层面和其在城市物流平台中的作用更加高效和经济。城市物流平台也通过采用最新的节能技术来实现可持续性发展。     

Convergence in the EU

The EU has long viewed economic and institutional convergence as important goals, but the results thus far have been decidedly mixed, and there remain several open questions: How exactly should convergence be defined? How much convergence is necessary? What steps can be taken to improve convergence in the EU, and how can success be defined? Finally, how much convergence can be achieved by improving the economic performance in underperforming regions, and how can convergence in the form of harmonisation towards lower welfare levels be avoided?     

The Effects of Pre-venture Plan Timing and Perceived Environmental Uncertainty on the Persistence of Emerging Firms

This paper explores the effects of when pre-venture planning occurs (early or late) in the sequence of activities accomplished during the process of new business emergence, and the moderating effects of environmental context (the degree of perceived financial, competitive and operational uncertainty), on the persistence of emerging business startup efforts. Using data from the U.S. Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED), our analyses found a strong main effect for business planning: Nascent entrepreneurs who completed a business plan were 2.6 times more likely to persist in the process of business emergence than those who did not complete a plan. In addition, the likelihood of venture persistence increased when nascent entrepreneurs engaged in planning early in the sequence of start-up activities in perceived uncertain financial and competitive environments, while venture persistence increased when nascent entrepreneurs engaged in planning late in a sequence of activities in perceived certain financial and competitive environments.     

Economic impact of an annual tourism industry exposition

This study was undertaken to estimate the economic impact on a specific region resulting from a nine-day tourism industry exposition. Over 80,000 people paid to attend the 1980 Greater Michigan Boat and Fishing Show which displayed equipment by 165 exhibitors. Detailed direct expenditure information was obtained from patrons and exhibitors. Multiplier analysis was employed to estimate total economic impact. Patrons were estimated to have a total economic impact on metropolitan Detroit of over $2 million. Economic sectors heavily impacted by patron expenditures were food services, entertainment, and auto related. Expenditures by show exhibitors were estimated to contribute an additional $1.8 million to the local economy. Economic sectors heavily impacted by exhibitors were households, advertising, and insurance.     

Financing the emerging firm

This study explores the financing choices of 1,214 nascent entrepreneurs in the PSED II dataset. Funding sources are divided into two broad categories: personal and external. We develop a set of hypotheses about the kinds of firm and nascent entrepreneur characteristics that would likely influence which categories of financial resources are used, and the amounts acquired. The majority of financing (57% of all financing) for emerging ventures comes from the personal contributions of its founders, who contributed a median amount of $5,500 per respondent. Firms that more likely to acquire external funding were projected to have higher levels of revenue, were incorporated, and were legally registered. Nascent entrepreneurs with higher levels of education and net worth were significantly more likely to acquire external funding. Results from analyses are presented and discussed. Implications of our findings are provided and suggestions for future research are offered.